5 Songs for February 2, 2024

Some great music to enjoy from the past

The Stanley Brothers – “Where We’ll Never Die” 1960 from Sacred Songs From the Hills. Some people don’t understand what I get out of religious music, since I don’t buy into the beliefs inherent in the genre. Just listen to this record, though. Carter Stanley could sing anything, especially with his brother Ralph adding that tenor harmony. With a gentle loping rhythm, folk more traditional from the mountains than the commercial bluegrass that made them famous, and Ralph’s delicately plucked banjo beneath the vocals, this track is elegantly hopeful with a plaintive sense of what needs to be overcome. Ralph wrote this with his wife Peggy, and it reflects their deep belief in a life beyond this one where pain will no longer exist. I don’t believe that will happen, but the love, tenderness, optimism, and twinge of sorrow inherent in this recording is something I admire and enjoy.

Anders Osborne – “Killing Each Other” 2010 from American Patchwork. Osborne has been recording and releasing records for almost 30 years, yet his fan base remains at the small cult level. I’ve dipped into his music now and again, almost always to enjoyable results. This particular cut strikes me as inspired by Bob Dylan circa Infidels. It’s got a stiff crunchy guitar riff that runs through all the song until the modulation at the chorus which always sounds produces sweet relief. The lyrics judge humanity for moving away from the natural or perhaps God-given ways of the world: “Turn our opinions into religion,” “Fight over water and land just the same,” “How come we judge and abandon what is given by God.” It’s a tough song, an infectious groove, a lament for modernity. I can’t find a video for the original, but the song is up on Bandcamp where you can sample the whole thing before buying.

Gladys Knight & the Pips – “Either Way I Lose” 1964 single available on Tastiest Hits. Wikipedia tells me the Pips started their career in 1952, when Gladys Knight was 8 years old. That may or may not be true, but by 1964, with Gladys established as the front person, they were definitely a veteran group. They had a big hit in 1961 with “Every Beat of My Heart,” but in 1964, they weren’t exactly tearing up the charts. This great song was written by Van McCoy, who 11 years later would tell us all to do “The Hustle.” It’s got a sinuous piano driven groove, with the Pips cooing in the background alternating with a gentle brass section and reinforced at appropriate moments by a harsh reed section thumping with the tom toms. Knight sings her tale of woe – she’s one of two women loved by the same man, and she doesn’t want to share him but she doesn’t want to leave him, so either way she loses – with a matter-of-fact sadness and none of the power she can summon at will as we know from later records. It’s a quiet record, full of resignation and pain, and it’s hard to get out of your head once you know it.

Les Paul & Mary Ford – “June in January” 1957 from Time to Dream. I remember my parents had the Les Paul & Mary Ford album with “How High the Moon” on it, and I loved it as a small child. This record isn’t like that one – there are no wild overdubbed harmonies, just Mary Ford singing intimately close to the microphone, with a single rhythm guitar and bass underlying Les Paul’s typically stunning lead guitar comments. His solo is exquisite, starting with a single reverberating note held over four beats and then dwindling notes before the big one comes back. He does that thing where he strums a chord but you can hear each note clipped, and then follows the melody to the end of the chorus. The song itself was originally sung by Bing Crosby in 1934, and there are many other versions, but I wasn’t familiar with any of them. Ford sells the idea that “The snow is just white blossoms / That fall from above.” It’s nice to hear her lovely alto without the usual tricks.

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends – “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way” 1970 from On Tour With Eric Clapton. Modeled heavily after the Ike & Tina Turner Revue – Bonnie Bramlett  (from Granite City, where my cousins grew up) had actually been the first white Ikette for a little while – Delaney & Bonnie & Friends could put on a show. There are some great videos of their performances on youTube. Neither Delaney Bramlett nor Bonnie were incendiary frontpersons, though she was more compelling than him. But they assembled a killer band organ player Bobby Whitlock, electric piano player Billy Preston, backing singer Rita Coolidge, drummer Jim Gordon, guitarist Dave Mason, and saxophonist Bobby Keys, along with that guy Clapton billed in the album’s title. (George Harrison also played on this tour, but he’s not on the album originally released.) This song is a typical workout for the group, a tight ensemble with a loose feel knocking out a hard-edged soul song about the hope of fixing a dead-end relationship. There’s some incredible drumming by the troubled (and abusive) Gordon, and a hot but not intrusive guitar solo by Clapton. Bonnie gets to sing verses by herself, something Delaney didn’t always let her do. All in all, an exhilarating track.